By Martin Banks - 8th September 2010
Our food supply chain is growing increasingly dysfunctional
Jose Bove
MEPs have approved a key report setting out possible ways of reworking the food supply chain, in order to improve the position of producers and citizens.
Proposals in Green MEP José Bové's report include legislation to enforce fair competition, with penalties and a complaint mechanism.
The French deputy calls on the commission to introduce measures to combat the "distorting effect" of market concentration and abuse of dominant market positions in the food chain.
The proposals aim to limit dominant market positions at all stages of the supply chain and "name and shame" companies committing unfair practices.
After the vote, Bové said, "Our food supply chain is growing increasingly dysfunctional. Despite ever-declining farm gate prices, which threaten the livelihoods of European farmers, consumers are faced with constant or increasing food prices.
"At a global level, the severe consequences of this food chain distortion have been once again brought sharply into focus with the current price spikes for various basic foodstuffs (notably wheat), which are causing hunger and unrest in the world's poorest countries.
"Against this background, it is welcome that a large majority of MEPs voted in favour of a strong report, despite last-minute lobbying by the agro-food industry to dilute some key elements of the report."
Bove, elected to parliament last year, shot to fame in the 1980s for destroying a branch of McDonalds.
In 1988, he helped organise a protest "Ploughing the Champs Elysee" in Paris against European set-aside policies. A couple of years later, he led hunger strikes for more government subsidies. In 1995, he was on the Rainbow Warrior, siding with Greenpeace against nuclear trials.
His report, approved by the full plenary in Strasbourg, was welcomed by several MEPs.
British Greens MEP Keith Taylor said, "This is an important step towards better controls over exploitation in, and by, the retail sector.
"It will help prevent larger food retailers and processors using their buying-power to bully producers into selling at ‘less than cost’ prices, and will also encourage greater transparency about retailers' profit margins."
"For too long, farm gate prices have been driven down, yet those savings rarely get passed on to consumers.
"There is no such thing as cheap food - either someone else is paying the true cost, or the environment has been degraded to produce it."
Further reaction came from Irish deputy Marian Harkin, ALDE's shadow rapporteur for the report, who said, "Quite simply, farmers are not receiving a fair return for what they produce."
She said commission research shows that since 1995 the "only actors in the food supply chain whose share of the retail price is decreasing are the farmers".
"Apart from being manifestly unfair, if farmers don't earn a fair return for their produce, they will go out of business and the EU will become even more dependent on food imports," she said.
More comment came from Swedish deputy Marit Paulsen, deputy chair of the agriculture and rural development committee, who believes that competiveness is the key to solving this anomaly.
Paulsen added, "We must increase farmers' competitiveness right at the top of the chain. A lot of our food chain is globalised, including the input industry, and so farmers need to be able to compete in a global marketplace."
However, a Brussels-based business organisation was less enamoured with the outcome of the parliamentary vote.
EuroCommerce said it "deeply regrets" adoption of the report with secretary general, Xavier Durieu, saying, "Although we see some improvements compared to the initial draft report, we regret that a number of misconceptions about the food supply chain - and retail in particular - remain.
"We are very unhappy that private label products are associated with 'misuse' in this report," Durieu said.
"There is simply no evidence for this. Own brands offer consumers a wider range of goods and quality at affordable prices.
"And they help small suppliers break into national and international markets with innovative and sustainable local food products."
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